Rudy Giuliani is the Joe Lieberman of the Republican party. He’s the guy who is both too moderate for his own party and too extreme for the opposition party. It’s too bad, really, because as much as I dislike the guy, at least he presents a different policy mix from the usual assortment of pandering stiffs.

Today, Giuliani was covered in the NYTimes talking about energy policy. He’s campaigning hard, pitching for his clients, and raising money. As expected, Rudy came out hard for expanding and diversifying domestic energy production by increasing our nuclear and natural gas power sources, opening more oil refineries and exploring alternative energy. None of that is controversial, not even the nod he gave to Iowa ethanol.

His one ernergy position that wasn’t RNC-approved relates to global warming. He doesn’t even try the Phillip Morris defense. He skips right to “everyone accepts the fact that it’s happening and it has an impact.” We’ll see how well that position plays on Super Tuesday.

This isn’t the only issue on which Rudy bucks the company line. To global warming, you can add abortion, gun-grabbing, and marriage equality. On paper, Rudy is slightly to the left of Hillary Clinton.

The smart money says Rudy is too moderate for primary victory. My guess is he decides to run but bows out early.

I want to get a 9mm suppressor for use on my 9mm AR-15 and my SigArms P229. Apparently, the floating style barrel of the Sig usually warrants and adapter of some sort to ensure the weapon cycles. Anyone have any recommendations?

I may also use it on my 10/22 and my Walther P-22.

We got this 7 pack of onesies from some one as a gift for the new kid. They’re labeled for each day of the week (we have one for Monday, Tuesday, etc.). These are useless in terms of getting a week’s wear out of them because babies go through about 4 outfits per day. My big money idea is to sell a 12 pack that starts with 1:00. 2:00, etc.

Junior has gone up until recently without ever having her bottom spanked. Well, that changed when she threw one of my big size 10 1/2 shoes and almost hit the new baby. This was after my verbal warnings to her to stop doing that near the baby. I picked her up and gave her a little pop on her butt. She laughed. I popped her butt just a bit harder. She laughed again. Third time, I connected and go her attention. Now, whenever I tell her no and get out of my seat, she puts her little hands over her butt and runs. She does this whether I plan on spanking her or not.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled light blogging.

Buck is looking for another co-blogger:

I would like to expand the Blogging pool here at Liberty1st so if you are a conservative / libertarian wanting to get a start in Blogging email me

Jeff has the latest check on guns in the media. Lot’s of stuff about liberals and guns, only not the kind you think.

Kim du Toit is doing some videos on shooting.

Sig isn’t happy with CA:

The California Highway Patrol restricted bids on a $5.3 million gun contract to a single Smith & Wesson pistol, even though a rival manufacturer offered almost identical weapons for $2.2 million less.

SigArms Inc. alleged in April 10 letters to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and CHP Commissioner Mike Brown that the state’s decision to favor Smith & Wesson was improper and contrary to state contract regulations, which require competitive bidding for big government purchases.

“Historically, when governments or companies have not used the competitive bidding process, waste and corruption have often been the result,” SigArms general counsel Eric Cook wrote.

Of course, I wish gun makers would follow Barrett’s lead and not sell to Cali.

Yeah, light blogging for the rest of the week. Any co-bloggers out there can kick it up a notch in my absence.

Sorry for the light blogging but I was out getting a job. So, uh, go me.

Tax cuts, terror wars, drug wars: choose two.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to end U.S. Army helicopter support for a joint U.S.-Bahamas drug-interdiction program that over the past two decades has resulted in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of tons of cocaine and marijuana. […]

But in a May 15 letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Rumsfeld said it was time after more than 20 years to shift the equipment elsewhere. The military is being stretched thin by the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and other commitments around the globe.

The Bahamas anti-drug program, Rumsfeld wrote, “now competes with resources necessary for the war on terrorism and other activities in support of our nation’s defense, with potential adverse effects on the military preparedness of the United States.”

Via the ever-excellent Drug War Rant.

Maybe later. Stuff to do. Meanwhile, for your reading pleasure:

RAGING AGAINST SELF DEFENSE: A PSYCHIATRIST EXAMINES THE ANTI-GUN MENTALITY

eNeighborhood watch

ACLU trying to stop spying

Paramilitary drug raids on crack

The AP:

A state trial judge on Monday overturned a voter-approved city ordinance that banned handgun possession and firearm sales in San Francisco, siding with gun owners who said the city did not have the authority to prohibit the weapons.

Good. As to why:

In siding with the gun owners, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge James Warren said a local government cannot ban weapons because the California Legislature allows their sale and possession.

I told you so.

I’ve been watching this show on Discovery Channel called Revolution. It’s a thirteen part documentary on the American Revolution. While watching it, I’m amazed at all the action that occurs. And that it occurs in Massachusetts. At one time, people in Massachusetts were willing to take up arms against a governing force over pretty small tax increases. Now, the government there arrests people on charges of animal cruelty for killing a seagull in self-defense.

Live free or there.

Barry has on Knox County’s invalid charter and how your vote there never really mattered. Just go here and scroll.

The Brady Crew is pushing the idea that Florida’s castle doctrine law is killing people:

A leading Florida newspaper yesterday published an analysis of incidents of violence in Central Florida that have occurred since January 1 where the state’s new deadly force law was invoked.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that in five counties in Central Florida 13 people killed six men and wounded four others, and that all but one of those shot were unarmed. The dead include a man who shook his fist at another man in a neighborhood dispute, and the wounded include a 15-year old would be car thief shot in the back of the leg while running away.

The story can be found at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl- deadlyforce1106jun11,0,2402838.story .

“The net effect of the new ‘Shoot First’ law in Florida is, unfortunately, precisely what we feared,” said Sarah Brady, honorary chair of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “People are dying who did not deserve to die. Meanwhile the legitimate cases of self-defense would have been viewed as legitimate self-defense without this law.

“Florida’s legislature should repeal this law. And other states thinking of passing this law should stop and look at the results in Florida,” Brady said.

One of the interesting things about the press release is that the link (which appears as is, I copied and pasted) doesn’t go any where. Yet, if you go to the actual article, it says:

It is too early to tell whether the law makes Floridians safer or puts them at greater risk. There are no statistics on the number of self-defense claims statewide before or after the law took effect Oct. 1.

But an Orlando Sentinel review of five months of court records in Orange, Osceola, Lake, Polk, Seminole and Volusia counties shows widespread differences in the way claims are investigated and prosecuted.

So, according to the article, there are no real statistics prior to when the law took effect. What is reported is the manner in which self-defense claims are prosecuted. The Brady Bunch, however, states that this piece shows that people are dying and initimates an increase in deaths. From the article, I see nothing indicating that.

They have to lie to win.

Via Chuck.

If you’ve ever thought the government would protect you from its own abuses, the recent domestic spying revelations have surely made the point that the only protection you’ll get is what you provide for yourself.

When you send email, it hops from computer to computer across the net in a form that can be read by anybody who cares to do so. Imagine every email is a postcard. It gets delvered by people passing it from hand to hand until it reaches its destination. Anybody handing it off can copy it, read it, or change it. People write all kinds of sensitive things in these postcards. They probably shouldn’t.

If you want more privacy than a postcard can offer, get yourself an envelope. I suggest you choose one that is tamper-resistant and very hard to open. In the world of email, that envelope is encryption.

The strongest encryption we know of is available to anybody who wants it at zero cost. It’s called GPG and works with many different email clients on Linux, Macs or even Windows. It takes some effort to set it up, but once you do, you can communicate privately with anybody.

How secure is GPG? Very. The amount of computing power it would take to break this encryption in a reasonable timeframe is more than we know exists on the Earth. Nothing is perfect, and this is as good as it gets.

Start using encryption. Encourage your friends and family to adopt it, and use it for everything from mundane chitchat to protecting sensitive business. There have been numeous attempts to outlaw encryption (from both major parties), and if it’s not in widespread use fairly soon, the current terror scaremongering might make it illegal to communicate in a way the government cannot understand.

Nobody can protect your privacy but you.

Terry Frank notes some inconsistency in how the local NBC affiliate decides what you should have access to:

OK. Let’s get this straight. A show that depicts Christianity in a bad light is a viewer decision. An ad that questions a union boss is censored.

You can make your own decisions about a show but not an ad.

Seems that in England, folks don’t like traffic cameras. So much so, that they’re destroying them. Here’s some pics of the mangled cameras.

Looks like Utah:

Utah residents volunteer more often and give more of their time than people in any other state, according to a national report released Monday.

Ok, Tennessee, get cracking.

The AP:

Murders, robberies and aggravated assaults in the United States increased last year, spurring an overall rise in violent crime for the first time since 2001, according to
FBI data.

Murders rose 4.8 percent, meaning there were more than 16,900 victims in 2005. That would be the most since 1998 and the largest percentage increase in 15 years.

Murders jumped from 272 to 334 in Houston, a 23 percent spike; from 330 to 377 in Philadelphia, a 14 percent rise; and from 131 to 144 in Las Vegas, a 10 percent increase.

Despite the national numbers, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York were among several large cities that saw the number of murders drop.

The overall increase in violent crime was modest, 2.5 percent, which equates to more than 1.4 million crimes. Nevertheless, that was the largest percentage increase since 1991.

As to why, the experts seem to think it’s because cuts in free government money and the NRA:

Criminal justice experts said the statistics reflect the nation’s complacency in fighting crime, a product of dramatic declines in the 1990s and the abandonment of effective programs that emphasized prevention, putting more police officers on the street and controlling the spread of guns.

“We see that budgets for policing are being slashed and the federal government has gotten out of that business,” said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston. “Funding for prevention at the federal level and many localities are down and the (National Rifle Association) has renewed strength.”

Is this person really intimating that the NRA’s activity has increased gun crime? I’ve seen no evidence that the NRA has done anything pro-criminal nor has it done anything to loosen restrictions on the availability of guns. The Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Justice have found that gun laws have no effect on crime.

I’m sure this is the impetus to blame the expiration of the assault weapons ban.

Update: AC encourages you to contact Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox has a whole heaping list of anti-gun credentials.

Update 2: David Hardy:

Hmm… NRA was pretty strong in 2004, too, when homicide rates fell by 2.4%.

And, strangely, in 2005, the FBI report notes, homicide rates fell by 3.9% in nonmetropolitan areas where gun ownership is highest.

And the lowest 2005 homicide increase came in the West, where gun ownship is also highest… 3.2% there, compared to 5.2% in the Northeast.

Well, that seems a bit too much, particularly since there have been no reported arrests.

WND:

If the prospect of being asked to explain some embarrassing detail about their personal lives by a prospective employer or a future romantic interest isn’t enough to deter users of social-networking websites like MySpace.com from posting it online, perhaps this will – the National Security Agency is funding research into mass harvesting what people post about themselves on the Internet.

I’m already on the list.

Rich:

I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me that if term limits are invalid, then most of the legislative actions of the Knox County government over the last few years is also invalid, including the regulations passed in Knox County limiting the operations of adult businesses.

Looks to me like most laws would be invalidated. Insty says:

SO IF KNOX COUNTY’S CHARTER has been ruled invalid, I guess it’s too much to hope for that I won’t have to pay my property taxes.

I installed quick tags. Now, when you comment, there are html buttons to make formatting easier when you leave comments. Yeah, the buttons are ugly but they work.

Found this via Der Commissar.

Jeff reports that Mikhail Kalashnikov has expressed some regrets about designing the AK-47:

“Whenever I look at TV and I see the weapon I invented to defend my motherland in the hands of these bin Ladens I ask myself the same question: How did it get into their hands?” the 86-year-old Russian gun maker said.

“I didn’t put it in the hands of bandits and terrorists and it’s not my fault that it has mushroomed uncontrollably across the globe. Can I be blamed that they consider it the most reliable weapon?” he said.

It gets into their hands the way they always do. If you had not built an AK, they’d be using another weapon. More:

The question is especially acute as an 11-day U.N. conference on curbing the small-arms trade convenes June 26 in New York. Kalashnikov is thinking of sending the delegates a statement.

Not sure what that statement would be but, from the article referenced, comes:

Kalashnikov said Amnesty International and Oxfam, the British charity, have asked him to write a statement for their campaign against small-arms proliferation, and he is also thinking of sending a separate statement addressed to the U.N conference.

So, Kalashnikov is getting anti-gun in his old years?

Update: The Scotsman has a different take:

I designed AK-47s to defend USSR – it’s not my fault terrorists use them

Swiss Army Knife has a jump drive.

I can’t imagine having a gun for over six years and not shooting it.

Please stand by.

Update: My host says I’m out of space, which I am not.
Odd how I can’t upload files to my server but can still post. While clearing out some stuff on the server, I find I did get a nasty gram from Google saying we’re delisting you.

Somehow I missed it, but big doings in Knoxville:

A chancellor ruled today that Knox County’s charter is “invalid and ineffective,” meaning the county would revert to the form of government outlined in the state constitution.

The ruling also invalidates term limits, which restricts the number of terms an elected official may serve.

Looks like we’re back to long-serving good ol’ boys.

Pro-Gun Progressive continues taking the pro-gun fight to the lefties:

Earlier this week I found out that Daily Kos favors the Second Amendment. The “big three” of liberal bloggers (DKos, Washington Monthly, and Talkingpointsmemo.com) haven’t really talked much about guns; I thought it’d be a good idea to see if Josh Marshall of TPM would go on record about self defense and the ever-important 2A. His site gets over 100K hits a day, and he’s quite the busy guy, so I was pretty flattered that he wrote back.

The response was mixed:

I don’t think the 2nd Amendment bars regulation of firearms. That’s for starters. I think it’s about state militias, etc. I also don’t think much of the NRA. However, I’d say I’m perfectly comfortable with what I guess you’d call a pro-gun stance. I think background checks are a good thing. Someone right out of a mental hospital shouldn’t be able to buy a gun. Felons shouldn’t be able to buy guns. Beside that, gun ownership is part of our culture. People can own as many as they want, as far as I’m concerned. I certainly don’t think gun control is an issue Democrats should be pushing.

The second amendment is not in any way about state militias. To think so is not really an inclination to support the right to bear arms. I also view it more as saying he has no issue with gun control but my party shouldn’t push it. I don’t find some of it particularly encouraging. All I see is that he is 1) wrong and 2) a hack about it by taking the politically expedient approach to it. Though the fact he takes no issue with people owning as many guns as they want is encouraging.